McAfee to accelerate Its Leadership in Security Space

In India, McAfee began its operations in 1998 and since then it has recorded a phenomenal growth in the Indian market. Being a pioneer in the proactive security solution program, McAfee intends to spread the concepts of proactive security in India on a large scale. Currently, the company is working towards rebuilding its brand presence in India and trying to consolidate its position in the security solution space. According to Kartik Shahani, Director – Sales, India and SAARC, McAfee,–“The strategy of the company is to leverage its culture of innovation, global presence and customer intimacy to deliver end-to-end security solutions to its customers.”

In India, McAfee is focussing on”the BFSI, Telecom and ITeS verticals. Speaking about McAfee strategy in the Indian market, Kartik Shahani says, “In India, McAfee is concentrating on products such as the Antivirus, Managed Virus Scan ePO (e-Policy Orchestrator), which are targeted at desktops, SMBs and large enterprises.” With more than six million subscribers to itsunique consumer online security service, McAfee’s consumer business has a thriving line of products and services to secure home users and home offices.

McAfee’s Go-to-Market Strategy
In a very short span of time, McAfee has been able to create a vast customer base in India, and all this credit goes to its well-structured channel partners. Today, McAfee works on a three-tier (Tier I – Elite Partner, Tier II – Premier Partner and Tier III –Associate Partner) Channel Partner program with around 300 channel partners.

McAfee Elite Partners are at the national level partnership through a demonstrated Partner firm commitment to customer satisfaction, competency and revenue growth. The Elite Partner is provided the highest level of privileges and rewards. Partners at this level have the closest working relationship with McAfee and receive benefits such as a dedicated Enterprise Support Technician available 24X7 and a named Sales Account Manager.

McAfee Premier Partner is a regional partner who is product specific and is committed to working together to meet customers’ ongoing security needs. Through investments in skills competencies and revenue growth, the Premier Partner demonstrates to customers a level of commitment that ensures that the solutions and services provided are of very high quality. Partner firm participation at this level provides access to an enriched level of benefits to help ensure customers success.

As an entry-level participant, the Associate Partner provides customers with quality solutions and technologies. They are very useful to cater to the SoHo scheme of business. Members at this level have easy access to a range of online resources to help them stay current on the latest McAfee solutions. Speaking about the partner’s dedications towards McAfee, Kartik says, “As Premier and Elite Partner, the base consideration is that they need to be dedicated partners for that particular product. However, there are others who are not Premier partners, but are still dedicated McAfee Partners.”

For McAfee, its channel partners are the only doors to the Indian market and for that reason it has always endeavoured to strengthen its channel partners through all sorts of programs. The company tries to provide all sorts of training and promotional activities to enable and motivate partners. There are co-funded events that the partners can utilize for customer’s awareness, besides the events that are organized. There are also 24X7 default support, Deployment assistance program, McAfee Virtual Technician and Platinum Support, which help the partner to reduced support calls and improved deployment. This actually takes a lot of pressure off in the post sale. Being a leader in the security space, McAfee offers a vast portfolio of products, which in turn helps the partners to visit their customers many more times in a year with a host of solutions. Speaking about the empowerment of channel partners’Kartik says, “We also put up the inside sales team that helps the smaller partners with leads and closures. We have a lot of marketing activities and trainings that are enabling partners to sell more and effectively.”

Currently, McAfee is heavily focussing on creating brand awareness in the Indian market through the utilization of various sorts of vehicles. In order to generate lead and awareness, the company uses eDM and DM and print advertisement. Apart from that, it has adopted lots of promotional activities for partners and end-customers. McAfee also organizes a number of events and seminars to create awareness about its products. Currently, McAfee has got around 25 people who are for sales and pre-sales. Kartik says, “Last year, we restructured our approach to take care of the operational requirements and the intent was to have more partners selling McAfee. To achieve this, we ran the Security alliance program and a recruitment drive for the smaller cities.”

Products in the Arsenal
Today, McAfee offers a vast portfolio of products to the customers.
* McAfee Virus Scan Enterprise 8.0 is an antivirus protection system for PCs and file servers ® McAfee Desktop Firewall keeps users safe from spyware, hackers, and other threats that cannot be stopped by antivirus software alone.
* McAfee Managed Desktop Firewall, the new brand for Desktop Firewall ASaP, is a comprehensive firewall security service that protects always-on Internet-connected business computers from attacks and intrusions.
* McAfee WebShield Appliance provides antivirus protection, content scanning and, as part of an optional upgrade, anti-spam protection at the Internet gateway.
* McAfee IntruShield Network Intrusion detection and prevention appliances integrate patented detection techniques, centralized management, flexible deployment and the industry’s highest Gigabit port density.
* McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator delivers a coordinated, proactive defence against malicious threats and attacks for the enterprises.
* McAfee Managed VirusScan is the new brand for VirusScan ASaP. It reduces a small business’ IT workload and spending costs while automating company’s virus protection.
* McAfee Host Intrusion Prevention Solutions protect critical systems and applications, thus preserving the availability, integrity and confidentiality of data.
* McAfee Foundstone Enterprise offers network infrastructure protection to ensure business continuity through asset discovery, inventory and prioritization; threat intelligence and correlation; and enhanced remediation tracking and reporting.
* McAfee Stinger Tool is a standalone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses. It is not a substitute for full antivirus protection, but rather a tool to assist administrators and users when dealing with an infected system. Stinger is basically a malware removal tool to help iPod and MP3 users to detect and remove Windows worms such as W32/QQPass.worm and W32/RJump.worm. Today’s multi-function devices like MP3 players, cellphones and digital cameras, with their much larger storage systems, and consumers’ tendency to plug them into multiple computers, can be a vector for slow-spreading threats like QQPass and RJump. With McAfee Stinger, consumers can scan for and remove these threats, safely eliminating them from their systems and devices. The Stinger is a user-friendly tool that can be easily installed on the computer. Once installed, it scans the iPod or MP3 player for previously listed specific viruses.

In the end…
The emerging security threats are propelling the PC users to embrace solutions that can help them to curb down the threat. In this scenario, McA fee solutions can enable them to secure their PCs from the possible attack from the virus, worm, Trojans, Phishing, etc.